Compass Catholic Community school in Davoren Park fee-free to help students beat barriers
It’s a fee-free Adelaide Catholic school that aims to help disengaged students – and has a very different approach.
Education
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A new fee-free Catholic high school in the northern suburbs is rising on a site once used as a government primary school.
Compass Catholic Community will offer year 11 and 12 places to young people aged 17 to 24 who have encountered barriers to continuing their education.
“If young people haven’t thrived in mainstream schooling, for whatever reason, then this school could be for them,” principal Kelly Bunyon said.
The school will be very flexible in how young people learn, with teachers working individually with students.
“It’s a very different way of educating, we’re not going to have lessons or classes in subjects, it’s all project-based,” Ms Bunyon said.
“So young people will come and engage in ways that are interesting to them. It’s very much an adult learning environment.”
The school recognises that young people who are caring for babies and toddlers – as parents or close family – are among those facing barriers. Therefore, a free childminding service will be available.
In addition, a free breakfast will be provided.
There will be no uniform and a full-time social worker will be employed to help students.
Designs of the new school, created by Hardy Milazzo Architects, have been published by Catholic Education SA.
Construction work has begun, with the aim of opening the school next year.
It is accepting enrolment applications and expects to grow to 120 students.
The school is being built on the site which was previously Davoren Park School.
That was one of 17 schools closed or merged to be replaced by six bigger venues, following a 2005 decision by the then state government.
Davoren Park merged with Smithfield Plains and Smith Creek to form John Hartley School, on Peachey Rd.
Compass Catholic Community will be in a “village” precinct with other educational institutions, including the Elizabeth campus of Islamic school the Garden College.
The SA Commission for Catholic Schools is investing $14.5m in the Vision for the North initiative, which includes the educational village.
A flexible learning centre operated in partnership with Edmund Rice Education Australia will cater for 12 to 17-year-olds.
Future plans include a special-assistance primary school.
“With more than 2000 young people currently disengaged from formal learning in Adelaide’s northern suburbs, there is a significant opportunity to break cycles of disadvantage by adopting new approaches to education”, the vicar general, Archdiocese of Adelaide, Philip Marshall said.
“This is about meeting young people where they are at and supporting them as they build healthy and fulfilling lives.”
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